TORY leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Reform UK are too “woke” for her to strike a deal with – while Nigel Farage’s party has hit back with a “neo-Nazis” jibe.
The row erupted after the Conservative leader repeated her claim that she would make no pact with Reform either before or after the next election on the Political Currency podcast.
Badenoch said: “Reform are a woke party – and I know a lot of people don’t understand, the word woke is used to mean many things. A lot of people assume it’s a left-wing thing.
“But when I talk about woke, I talk about people who, it’s all grievance, it’s victim narratives, ‘people are doing this to us’, oppressor narratives, ‘this is the oppressor class’.
“On the left, it’s ‘whites are the oppressors’ or ‘men are the oppressors’, on the right it’s ‘the establishment are the oppressors’, ‘look at what they’re doing to us’.
“It’s all moaning and whingeing and not proper solutions. It’s about power dynamics and how to get power, not actually solutions and how to fix things.”
“I don’t see how I could possibly have people like that in some form of coalition,” Badenoch added.
Hitting back, a Reform source said: “According to Kemi, being woke apparently means not having neo-Nazis in your party.”
The reference was to Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi who was previously jailed for antisemitism who the Conservatives selected to run in the 2027 council elections.
Badenoch defended the selection of Bonehill-Paine, who had been involved with anti-extremism initiatives since his release from prison, but he later quit as a Tory candidate of his own accord, instead accepting an invitation to become a Conservative Party adviser.
Reform UK have had their own controversies with neo-Nazis, including refusing to take action against Glasgow councillor Audrey Dempsey after she shared a stage with fascist speakers who had praised Adolf Hitler.
Nigel Farage’s party has also allowed a Holocaust denier to stand for them in a council election, and hired a man pictured doing a Nazi salute as an adviser to their Welsh leader, among other controversies.
Farage himself accepted £141 to promote a neo-Nazi event on the website Cameo, and reportedly expressed neo-Nazi sentiments while at the private Dulwich College.
